Indigo Girl Emily Saliers lobbies on the Hill for immigration rights

Emily Saliers, one-half of the Indigo Girls, spent Thursday on Capitol Hill trying to drum up support for expanding immigration rights for binational couples, gay or straight (Saliers wife is from Canada).

Saliers says that she knows exactly who is in the way of her objectives and the Uniting American Families Act, which she is lobbying in favor of: Republicans.

Text Size

-

+

reset

“The majority of the roadblock is the Republican Party and conservative thinkers who are making a moral judgment,” Saliers told POLITICO. “We’re talking about a party that historically, at least recently, is representing a completely different paradigm and set of values than the Democratic Party has espoused in recent history. … The bottom line is that politicians want to get reelected and there’s a lot of hate mongering, fear mongering in this country. It’s very disturbing to me and people get lumped into groups, like all immigrants are the same, all queers are the same, it’s us against them. It’s a lot of racism and homophobia involved in it.”

The amendment would permit U.S. citizens to seek green cards for their same-sex foreign partners.

Saliers praised Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who has fought on behalf of the amendment, and President Barack Obama for his support of gay rights.

“I have to say that Obama and this administration has done so many things to support us,” said Saliers. “The fact that Obama was the first president to come out in support of gay marriage is absolutely incredible. I will always remember the day that I heard that. … I’m deeply appreciative of this administration. We’re in a period of rapid, social change and the opposite forces are clawing to keep the old ways alive.”

“Ultimately our goal is to have same sex couples be afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples because for me personally, I’m in a committed relationship for life. I don’t want to have to give up my country to keep my relationship. And I would like to see everybody get on board with that.”